Master Status
by Zanbandia
Summary: If you were given a label that could never be removed, how would you live? Harry knows how. Hermione is seeing how he does. Sequel to A Serious Discussion While Watching Cartoons.
1. Chapter 1

Hermione nearly dropped the bowl of popcorn she'd been taking with her to the den for an afternoon of movies and box set series watching. For in the den on the couch lying relaxed and at ease was Harry Potter. The same Harry Potter who's family claimed he was a squib. The same Harry who agreed and lived in the muggle world with his aunt and uncle during the school year, reluctantly, Hermione had learned. The same Harry that understood the compatibility between muggle and magical power sources better than anyone else Hermione talked to.

Yet, it wasn't Harry Potter himself that had caused Hermione to almost drop the bowl, it was the fact that in his hand was a wand.

Harry was performing magic! Hermione watched as he quietly muttered accio and a book came towards him and then he wordlessly banished it back. When he banished the book back Hermione's fingers went numb, the bowl fell to the floor with a clatter. Popcorn spread across the floor, puffed kernels contrasting greatly with the wooden floor. Harry twisted around and when he saw Hermione he looked horrified and relieved. Though Hermione would hazard a guess that relief wouldn't have been there if it hadn't been her standing that. That caused her chest to tighten and warm. Harry pointed his wand at the mess and Hermione watched as the popcorn jumped back into the bowl, and bowl back into her hands. She walked forward and handed the blow to harry. He took it while Hermione closed the den's doors behind her.

"Mind telling me what you're doing performing magic?" Hermione asked as she crossed her arms and jutted her hip to the side. A pose Harry had learned came before a lecture.

"Oops?" he offered and received and eyebrow rise instead.

"Harry," Hermione warned.

"Okay, okay. I'm not a squib! Happy?" Harry grumbled. He turned forward to face the TV, which Hermione noted was pretty loud. Probably Harry's way of covering up his magic use, but why cover it up?

"Why are you hiding the fact you can do magic?" Hermione went around the couch and sat next to him. Trying to look him in the eye but he turned his head away. She noted his shoulders were shaking a little.

"Harry…"

"Don't!" He turned so quickly towards her that Hermione was sure he pulled something.

"Don't," he repeated. "Please don't…"

"Don't what, Harry?"

He looked at her and Hermione's throat tightened at the miserable look in his eyes.

"Don't use that tone Hermione. I hate that tone. Like I'm to be pitied and thought of as insignificant. I'm not. I don't want you to talk to me like my parents do." He looked away.

Hermione startled at his words, but looking back on how Lily and James Potter acted around their oldest son she could see that they treated him differently. Almost in a pitying way, an ashamed way.

"Never," Hermione stated firmly causing Harry to tense and look at her again. "I respect you too much Harry to pity you. I'm not using that tone because of pity. I'm using it because I'm concerned. Why have you been hiding your magic?"

Harry bit his lip. He shifted. Released his lip then bit it again.

"Because," he said at last.

"Because?" Hermione prompted.

"Because of the master status," he said then looked away from Hermione quit ashamed.

Hermione blinked in confusion. She didn't understand. Oh she knew what a master status was. It was a social title given to someone that outweighed who that person was and permanently labeled them as what they are in society; such as rapist, murders, and mental patients. You couldn't get rid of the status even if the circumstances leading up to the event where questionable.

"What master status Harry? I don't understand."

"The Master Status in the wizarding world. The one that trumps everything else."

"What—"

"Squib."

Hermione stared at Harry shocked them shook her head. Harry nodded grimly.

"Everyone believes I'm a squib Hermione, the doctors, my parents, the teachers at Hogwarts, hell even the bloody government. I could go into Hogwarts right now and start casting spells left and right and they would probably say someone else did it. To everyone it's impossible for me to be able to do magic."

"But perhaps it was a mistake."

"It was. Faulty test. I looked them up and studied the results when I kept doing things. I found out the test aren't always accurate, but that doesn't matter if the professionals say I'm a squib, then I'm a squib to the magical society."

"But why?"

"It's like the Master Status for people with mental problems. They can't go and prove they aren't crazy because the professional would say that you can't know you're not crazy when you're crazy. It's the same with the magical. They say how a squib can know if they have magic if they can't use magic? They assume we can't tell. I've lived my whole life being called a squib but have been able to do magic. Hell, my parents even saw me do magic and wrote it off and Eddie's accidental magic!" Harry had started to sound hysterical.

The pain in Hermione's throat and chest was too much. She surged forward and pulled harry into a hug. She felt him tense and then his body relaxed and she could hear him sobbing horribly into her shoulder. The kind of sobbing that left you gasping for air, and shuddering as you exhaled again during sobs. She held him till he couldn't cry anymore and ended crying all over. She didn't say a word of reassurance or that they'd prove he had magic. If Harry was calling this a Master Status, it wouldn't matter if they had all the proof in the world the only thing the magical community would see is one word: SQUIB.

Outside the den with her hand hovering over the handle was Molly Weasley, behind her stood her husband and the two Potter parents. All four looked shocked and horrified at what they had just learned. Harry Potter wasn't a squib. He was magical and he'd been living with prejudice and shames his whole life because of a faulty test to see if he had magical abilities.

What had they done?

End

AN:

Master status is a sociological term used to denote the social position, which is the primary identifying characteristic of an individual. The master status, whether ascribed or achieved, overshadows all other social positions of the status set in most or all situations.

At least that's what my sociology notes said. I found this story in my files and at first it was going to be a chaptered story, but while reading over the first part and then this part I think they read better as one-shots. Sorry for any mistakes. Don't have a beta and yeah. Hope you all enjoyed this! FYI if anyone is wondering it's been about two years since A Serious Discussion. Harry and Hermione are seventeen. Anyone wondering how Harry got that wand and learned magic? Well, Remus really is a good teacher. The best DADA teacher Hogwarts had while Harry attended, and Sirius wasn't an Auror for nothing.


	2. Notice

Notice: Master Status: Squib is up and I would just like to thank everyone who faved and put this story on their alert list.

I hope you all enjoy Master Status: Squib. I'm still looking for a beta reader! Anyone interested please message me. Anyone who knows someone that may be able/interested please have them message me.


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